If you’re looking for the ultimate celebration destination, look no further than Park Plaza Gardens. For three decades, we have been redefining the restaurant business at our Winter Park location, providing a quality of food and service that can’t be found anywhere else.

Not only do we provide a large menu of premium dishes, but we offer an unforgettable venue for hosting any number of special events – whether it’s a corporate function, engagement party, wedding reception, or holiday party, we’ll work with you to accommodate your needs. Our garden-inspired atrium dinning room can accommodate up to 100 people, and provides an ideal setting for any number of uses, including casual luncheons, formal functions, or even private romantic dinners.

We even provide high-quality Orlando Wedding Catering, ensuring that your guests and loved ones can enjoy a savory palette that’s fit for the occasion. Our highly-acclaimed and professional staff will cater to your every need and desire, providing innovative ideas and plans for your special event. Park Plaza Gardens can offer a variety of contemporary cuisine, a customized menu, specialty décor and entertainment, VIP dining, exclusive chef’s table, and much more.

Park Plaza Gardens also includes a European-style sidewalk cafe that brings added elegance and convenience, in addition to its own unique selection of great drinks and dishes. These flexible and luxurious options are why Orlando Sentinel food editor Heather McPherson choseParkPlazaGardensas the top 15 most romantic restaurants in Orlando, highlighting the aesthetic beauty it has to offer.

Plaza Gardens is dedicated to make your next special event as memorable as possible. For more information on booking a reservation or to schedule an on-site consultation with our event management, contact us at 407-645-2475 or send us an email.

Join us at the 54th Annual Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival March 15, 16 and 17. The festival is one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most prestigious juried outdoor art festivals, consistently rated among the top shows by Sunshine Artist and American Style magazines. Each year more than 350,000 visitors enjoy the show. For the past 30 years or so, the festival has been contained solely in the park area and currently features 225 artists and 3 emerging artists. A loving art community has created and nurtured a successful festival that looks forward to another 50 years in Central Park.

Stop by Park Plaza Gardens for food, drinks, and fun as we celebrate with featured menus and extended outdoor seating. Reserve your seat today 407-645-2475.

Visit www.wpsaf.org for additional details about the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival.

Orlando Sentinel food editor Heather McPherson picks the top 15 romantic restaurants in Orlando. Among them was the local Park Avenue sensation, Park Plaza Gardens. Truly a romantic restaurant destination, guests can dine in the amber glow amidst ficus trees in the garden-inspired atrium, or in the VIP Dining room, perfect for private parties or special events.

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VIP Dining at Park Plaza Gardens

Recipe for Success
By Rona Gindin

The bloom’s still on at Mary Demetree’s Park Plaza Gardens

They say a woman earns her wrinkles. With Mary Demetree’s Park Plaza Gardens, it seems Winter Park’s grande dame has weathered quite the life herself – yet what we see today is a restaurant that’s blossoming, not blemished.

Park Plaza Gardens is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, selling original menu items such as shrimp newburg in casserole at the 1980 price of $13.25. Its history actually began earlier, under other names in different forms. The Hamilton Hotel first opened in 1922 and had an eatery called the Hamilton Grill, located where Park Plaza Gardens’ bar area is now. When Park Plaza Hotel current owners John and Sissie Spang took over in the mid-1970s, they renovated the space and opened a restaurant called The Palms, which encompassed both the current bar and dining areas. John Spang bricked the ground behind the former Hamilton Grill – it had been dirt – and a wall, and covered the space with awnings. “We had no roof,” he recalls. “It was open-air.”

Continuity counts

Ten years ago Mary Demetree bought Park Plaza Gardens and has been at the restaurant’s helm the entire decade. Embracing the past, in 1999 – shortly after the purchase – the restaurant began a yearlong 20th anniversary celebration by inviting former chefs to host monthly dinners. It was called the Alumni Chef series. Today, Benj Ray is the general manager. In the kitchen, executive chef John Tan dishes out creative interpretations of American, European and Asian dishes; he has been there for nine years. Guests settle into the garden-like dining room’s 110 seats for meals and frequent the bar area’s 90 high-tops and sidewalk seats for casual fare – and some of the Avenue’s best people watching.

Mary Demetree seems set on continuing to serve Central Floridians, and even indicates that she hopes to expand the space at some point. “We look forward to serving the community for another 30 years,” she says. “This is a meeting place for Winter Park residents” – and not just for business folks and ladies who lunch, she emphasizes. “This is not just a special occasion restaurant. It’s a place for everyone to have dinner.”

Mary Demetree especially enjoys the community events, such as the 2010 Winter Park Sidewalk Arts Festival, during which Park Avenue is closed to cars. “It becomes like a European plaza where people can walk, shop and dine at all the restaurants in that quadrant with no cars. People had a blast. We would so like to see more of that in the future.”

Meanwhile, she takes her meals at the corner booth that was long the catbird seat of founder Clement J. Ford Jr. She sits near a plaque dedicated to her former friend. It says, “He never tattered, this man of flair; a man that mattered, a man who cared.” It seems Mary Demetree carries that same passion.

Read the Full Article in Winter Park Magazine

Visit ParkPlazaGardens.com

Do a little exploring and savor the amazing flavors of wines from around the world at this week’s Taste of Tuesday!

Can you decipher the difference between the varietals? Prepare to sharpen your skills and get ready for an exciting evening full of suspense as we host Taste of Tuesday’s “Blind Tasting”!

Can you “find it”? Stop by Park Plaza Gardens this Tuesday and “match up” the right wine with it’s correct label for this week’s Taste of Tuesday! Join us as we test your skills and enjoy complimentary passed appetizers, great atmosphere and good people.

Cost $20 per person
Tuesday, October 16th
5:30 – 7:30 pm

*Wine club members receive a 10% discount

Let the debate begin! California was first spotted on the map when several California wines beat out their French competition at the “Judgement of Paris Wine Competition” in 1976.  Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignon were sampled from both California and France and California won in both categories.

The long fruit hang times in California make for a long growing season and rich, concentrated fruit.  Compare this to the Old World Style of wines that characterize the French-crafted equivalents.  They are recognized as being soft, supple, silky, complex yet delicate.

Come and settle the debate Tuesday, October 9th at Taste of Tuesday!

Sip multiple varietals from 5:30 to 7:30 pm * Savor samplings of menu item pairings * Satisfy your thirst and enjoy each wine themed event

$20 Per Person (10% off for Wine Club Members). Reservations are encouraged 407-645-247.

Enter for your chance to win 1 of 3 prizes in the “Park Plaza Gardens Sweepstakes”. The first 10,000 entrants will have a chance to win!

ENTER NOW

1ST PLACE: AN EXCLUSIVE 5-COURSE THEMED PRIVATE DINING NIGHT OUT FOR YOU AND 9 FRIENDS AT PARK PLAZA GARDENS “VIP DINING EXPERIENCE”

With lavish tablescapes, 5-course menus, themed cocktails, white dinner jacket service, and top tier wine pairings, Park Plaza Gardens offers VIP Themed Dining for the ultimate dining experience. The VIP Dining Room, boasting a private Red Carpet entrance in our brand new alcove, is dressed to the nines for groups up to 10. Three custom-themed menus are available including Southern Decadence, 1940’s Supper Club and East Meets West. Experience VIP Dining, Red Carpet Service.

*Exclusive Dining Room with Private Red Carpet Entrance

* Elaborate 5-Course Themed Menus

* Impeccable White Glove Dinner Jacket Service

*Top-Tier Wine Pairings

*Lavish Tablescapes

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2ND PLACE: CHAMPAGNE & ROYAL TEA PARTY FOR 25

Pamper yourself at Park Plaza Gardens for a Royal Tea experience. With all the essentials of a traditional high tea, with a spin of PPG flare, the Royal Tea experience is one you won’t want to miss. Complete with free flowing champagne, incredible scones, fresh handmade sandwiches, irresistible desserts and hand picked assorted teas, an unforgettable afternoon awaits you that only Park Plaza Gardens can create.

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3RD PLACE: $500 “NIGHT AT THE BAR”

Grab a few friends and enjoy a “night at the bar” at Park Plaza Garden’s Cafe with a complimentary $500 bar tab, including drinks and passed appetizers. Choose from our amazing specialty cocktails, extensive wine list and incredibly delicious appetizers like our Smoked Salmon Potato Gallette or Prince Edward Island Mussels. This night out is all inclusive – tax and gratuity included.

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View Official Rules & Details

This Tuesday, join us at Park Plaza Gardens as we explore the Wines of Fess Parker at Taste of Tuesday, Park Avenue’s HOTTEST new wine event!

When Fess Parker was cast as Davy Crockett in the mid-1950’s, it caused an international sensation and changed his life forever. So did the purchase of 714 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley change the course of the Parker family’s history.

After his acting career, Parker devoted much of his time to operating his Fess Parker Family Winery and Vineyards in Los Olivos, California. The Parker operation includes over 1,500 acres of vineyards, and a tasting room and visitor center along the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail. In addition to wine, the winery is known for selling coon skin caps and bottle toppers, inspired by Parker’s Crockett and Boone characters.

Fun Fact: In a reminiscence of his acting days, Parkers’ wine labels have a logo of a golden coonskin cap.

Sip multiple varietals from 5:30 to 7:30 pm * Savor samplings of menu item pairings * Satisfy your thirst and enjoy each wine themed event

$20 Per Person (10% off for Wine Club Members). Reservations are encouraged 407-645-247.

Be sure to reserve your seat at Taste of Tuesday’s Premier Wine Dinner Featuring “Wines of Rosenblum Cellars”. 5-Courses! Details >>